1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an animal blood cell measuring apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In making diagnoses on animals, counting reticulocytes is useful for diagnosing animals with, for example, anemia. At veterinary hospitals, currently, counting of red blood cells or white blood cells is often automatically performed using analyzers; however, reticulocytes are visually counted in general.
United States Patent Publication No. 2006/0004530 discloses an analyzer for automatically counting animal reticulocytes. The analyzer of United States Patent Publication No. 2006/0004530 receives the selection of an animal species to be analyzed, and counts blood cells based on analysis conditions corresponding to the received selection of the animal species. Here, blood cells to be counted include reticulocytes in addition to red blood cells, white blood cells, and the like.
Reticulocytes of some animal species consist of a single type of reticulocytes. However, for example, reticulocytes in felines consist of a plurality of types of reticulocytes including punctate and aggregate reticulocytes. Counting aggregate reticulocytes is useful when diagnosing animal species with anemia, whose reticulocytes consist of a plurality of types of reticulocytes. For example, in the case of felines, the number of punctate reticulocytes reaches a peak within 10 to 20 days after an episode of acute blood loss. Thereafter, the punctate reticulocytes disappear over approximately four weeks. Whereas, the number of aggregate reticulocytes reaches a peak within 4 to 7 days after the episode of acute blood loss. Accordingly, counting aggregate reticulocytes, the number of which reaches a peak at an earlier stage than the punctate reticulocytes, is useful, for example, for determining the degree of recovery from anemia (i.e., useful for determining the effect of medication).
As mentioned above, there are known analyzers that automatically count reticulocytes. However, United States Patent Publication No. 2006/0004530 does not give a description in relation to counting only aggregate reticulocytes among reticulocytes consisting of a plurality of types of reticulocytes. Therefore, even if the analyzer disclosed in United States Patent Publication No. 2006/0004530 is used, aggregate reticulocytes have to be visually counted, which imposes a substantial burden on veterinarians and laboratory technicians.